VIntage Art Deco Jakob Bengel machine age chrome and large bright lipstick red galalith bead chunky statement necklace - unused shop stock

Vintage Jakob Bengel necklace from the 1930s with a fabulous Art Deco machine age design. The necklace consists of large bright red galalith (early plastic similar to bakelite) beads spaced around the necklace with shiny chrome beads and classic hemisphere cup bead guards.

What I love most about Jakob Bengel designs, especially these Bauhaus influenced, brightly coloured pieces, is that the design is so modern. You could believe it was designed last week, whereas it is in fact nearly 90 years old and crafted with care and expertise. It has a generous choker length of 18 inches and fastens with a shiny screw clasp. It is in excellent, as-new vintage condition - it is unused stock from Germany.

Jakob Bengel was a chain and costume jewellery factory, founded by Jakob Bengel in 1873 in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. Until 1920, the company specialised in the production of watch chains and chatelaines (pendants for pocket watches). In the 1920s and 1930s, it became one of the leading manufacturers of fashion jewellery in the Art Deco style. It was during the Bauhaus and Art Deco period that designers were looking to obtain new materials and inspiration to produce costume jewellery. Inspired by French Avant-Garde and other fashion trendsetters such as Coco Chanel, Bengel started to produce experimental jewellery. The pieces, catalogued 1924-1939, combined brass and chrome with geometric shapes of coloured galalith.